GURGAON: A woman has been booked for allegedly posting a photograph of her NRI husband on Facebook, which she had clicked when he was locked up in a police cell, after being arrested in a dowry harassment case a year ago.

The NRI, Gurcharan Avasthi, lodged a complaint against his wife on Wednesday, for defaming him, police said, adding that the woman was booked under Section 66A of IT act.

According to the police, Avasthi had married Shalini Vassisth in 2008. “Last year, he was arrested for alleged dowry harassment. She had clicked his pictures when he was in police custody and later uploaded the photos on Facebook and Whatsapp,” an official said.

“A dowry harassment case was lodged against Awasti about six years ago but he was arrested last year,” said Rajesh Kumar, additional SHO, Sector 56 police station.

The bare act of IT Act, 2000 is below. The news is very brief on details, so my best guess is that Sec 66A (b) below was applied in this case. The pictures of her husband in police custody may not be false information per se, but she may have added some false statement or masala while sharing it on Facebook or Whatsapp. That might have done her in.

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,—

(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or

(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,

(c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages,

shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

Explanation.— For the purpose of this section, terms “electronic mail” and “electronic mail message” means a message or information created or transmitted or received on a computer, computer system, computer resource or communication device including attachments in text, images, audio, video and any other electronic record, which may be transmitted with the message.